Katrina Sánchez is a Panamanian-American artist based in Charlotte, NC, working with fiber, soft sculpture and murals. Her practice explores themes of joy, connection, and healing. Through the careful knitting and stuffing of each “knitted noodle” — oversized and plush linear forms that are central to her work — Sánchez engages the soft materiality of textiles to explore the meaning and significance of comfort within an increasingly isolating world. By combining knit and woven patterns, she introduces vibrant color and rich textures into three dimensional space, to create environments that foster tenderness and joy, while playing with scale, to build a sensory effect of playful confrontation and power in her work.

Sánchez’s current practice evolved from experiences repairing personal objects through visible mending in her studio, as well as her background as a seamstress. Her work is also heavily influenced by the matriarchs of her family and the passing down of textile traditions. She holds a BFA in Fibers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is a collective member of Goodyear Arts. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent showings at the VOLTA Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland, and String Theory at Hodges Taylor x Jamila Brown, Charlotte, NC. Sánchez has been commissioned by companies such as Lowe’s, Credit Karma, Truist, and Ally Bank. She is currently preparing for a solo activation at the Mint Museum in Charlotte and a solo exhibition at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Los Angeles.